Data storage optimization for non-volatile memory

ABSTRACT

Non-volatile devices may be configured such that a clear operation on a single bit clears an entire block of bits. The representation of particular data structures may be optimized to reduce the number of clear operations required to store the representation in non-volatile memory. A data schema may indicate that a data structure of an application may be optimized for storage in non-volatile memory. A translation layer may convert an application level representation of a data value associated with the data structure to an optimized storage representation of the data value before storing the optimized storage representation of the data value in non-volatile memory.

CROSS REFERENCE WITH RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/305,894, filed Jun. 16, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,811,459, thedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Many computing systems, including networked computing systems, containnon-volatile storage devices configured with memory for storing data andother information. These computer systems may be used to execute avariety of different applications. In addition, resources for networkcomputing and storage are often provided by computing resource providerswho leverage large-scale networks of computers, servers and storagedrives to enable clients, including content providers, online merchantsand the like, to host and execute a variety of applications and webservices. Applications executing on these and other computer systems mayfrequently increment values stored in non-volatile storage. This may bea common operation in many sequential and transactional processingapplications, such as a database or queue manager. These applicationsmay increment values frequently or even as part of every operation tomaintain data consistency.

Performing these may be operationally expensive for certain types ofnon-volatile storage devices. For example, in many storage devices, thesubstrate used for data storage and the controller used for data storageare configured such that flipping bits (i.e., changing their state fromzero to one (also referred to as “off” or “on”) or vice versa) is slowerand operationally more complex in one direction than in the other. Insome examples, flipping a bit in one direction requires caching dataaround the bit, clearing the data around the bit, and rewriting the dataaround the bit such that the result reflects the flipped bit. Flippingin the other direction, however, may not require such operations andoften the bit may be flipped without affecting the surrounding bits. Asa result, similar data operations (e.g., updating a stored value) canhave highly variable performance characteristics depending on how thecorresponding bits are flipped during such operations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will bedescribed with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an illustrative environment where application memory may beconverted and stored in optimized storage in accordance with at leastone embodiment;

FIG. 2 is an illustrative example of a non-volatile storage device inaccordance with at least one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an illustrative environment where a translation layer mayoptimize data in accordance with at least one embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an illustrative environment where a translation layer mayprovide optimized data storage for applications executing on systemhardware in accordance with at least one embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an illustrative example of a translation layer optimizingapplication memory in accordance with at least one embodiment;

FIG. 6 is an illustrative example of a process for optimizing datawritten to non-volatile storage in accordance with at least oneembodiment;

FIG. 7 is an illustrative example of a process for retrieving optimizeddata from non-volatile storage in accordance with at least oneembodiment; and

FIG. 8 illustrates an environment in which various embodiments can beimplemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, various embodiments will be described. Forpurposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments.However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that theembodiments may be practiced without the specific details. Furthermore,well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscurethe embodiment being described.

Techniques described and suggested herein relate to enhancements forstoring data in non-volatile memory. Applications executing on computersystems and/or virtual computer systems may maintain data in applicationmemory. The application memory may be tied to one or more storagedevices of the computer systems, including non-volatile storage devices.For example, a computer system may include a solid-state hard driveconfigured to persist the application's memory. A translation layer maymodify the storage representation for particular values included in theapplication's memory in order to improve performance of the non-volatilestorage. The modified storage representation may be implemented withoutmodification to the application or operation of the application.

A variety of different storage devices may have asymmetric performanceprofiles for updating a value stored in the storage device. For example,a storage device using charge nodes, such as a charge trap orfloating-gate metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor(MOSFET), may permit changing a single bit or bits in a particulardirection. However, in order to change the bit in the opposite directionthe storage device may require altering a much larger group of bits.These types of non-volatile storage devices may be configured such thata large number of charge nodes are wired together in a group or block ofbits in order to enable a clear operation. The clear operation mayrequire additional power to be performed, thereby requiring a largenumber of charge nodes to be wired together in order to obtainsufficient power to clear the charge nodes. Therefore, changing orflipping a particular bit in the storage device from 0 to 1 may requirea single operation on the particular bit but changing the particular bitfrom 1 to 0 may require additional operations, including clearing orerasing a large number of bits. For example, changing the particular bitfrom 1 to 0 may require the storage device to copy the data contained inthe block of bits, including the change to the particular bit from 1 to0, to a new block of bits and clearing the previous block of bits wherethe data was contained. Other storage devices may have similarperformance characteristics when reversing or otherwise changingparticular bits of the storage devices.

Particular data structures, such as counters, frequently include both 0to 1 bit transitions as well as 1 to 0 bit transitions. As the counteris incremented or decremented, the storage device may be required to domultiple copy, write and clear operations. The use of clear operationsmay cause performance that is considerably slower than operationsinvolving read or write operations without clear operations.Additionally, clear operations (also referred to as erasures) may havean aggregate effect of reducing the lifespan of a storage device,increasing operational cost of an application that utilizes the storagedevice. This translation layer may selectively identify data structures,such as an incrementing value, and recode or otherwise modify the datastructure's storage representation in order to reduce the number ofcross-directional bit transitions (e.g., changing a particular bit from1 to 0 as described above). A cross-directional bit transition may beany changing or flipping of a particular bit in a storage device thatrequires the storage device to copy, write and clear bits of the storagedevice.

The translation layer may also selectively identify or otherwise detectvalues that may be recoded or otherwise modified such that the storagerepresentation of the values may reduce the number of clear operationsrequired to be performed by the storage device. The storagerepresentation may additionally use the range of representable valuessparsely in order to reduce the number of clear operations required tobe performed by the storage device. Sparse representations arerepresentations that account for most or all information of a data fieldwith a linear combination of a small number of elements. Often, theelements are chosen from an over-complete dictionary. Formally, anover-complete dictionary is a collection of elements such that thenumber of elements exceeds the dimension of the space elements of thedata field, so that any data field or value thereof may be representedby more than one combination of different elements. The use of sparserepresentations may vary for particular data structures and/or datavalues based at least in part on performance and storage capacity. Forexample, the storage representation of particular values of the datafield may be configured such that the number of clear operationsrequired by the non-volatile memory to store the data field is reduced.

In some embodiments, the number of clear operations may be reduce tozero. For example, if the data field is a 32 bit counter the optimizedstorage representation may be configured such that each bit is a countervalue, thereby reducing the number of clear operations to zero and thenumber of values that may be represented by the 32 bit data field tozero to thirty two. However, reducing the number of clear operations tozero may require increased storage capacity in order to store theoptimized storage representation. As in the example above, in order toincrease the maximum possible value of the counter the number of bitsused to store the counter must be increased. In a specific example, whenan application is incrementing integers from zero to ten (base ten) theoperations involve at least one binary zero-to-one transition and fiveone-to-zero transitions: 0000, 0001, 0010, 0011, 0100, 0101, 0110, 0111,1000, 1001, and 1010.

The translation layer may determine an alternative recoding of thecounter value in order to reduce or eliminate the number ofcross-directional bit transitions. An alternative recoding in binaryformat the integers from zero to ten (base ten) by the translation layermay include sliding a ‘1’ bit across with periodic resets in order tointroduce ‘0’ bit markers reducing thereby the number ofcross-directional bit transitions from 5 to 2: 0000, 0001, 0011, 0111,1111, 0010, 0110, 1110, 0100, 0101, and 1101. The translation layer maymaintain information mapping optimized storage representations of valuesto corresponding application values. Returning to the example above, theoptimized storage representation 0111 may correspond to the applicationcounter value 0011 and mapping information associated with the mappingof 0111 to 0011 may be maintained by the translation layer. In someembodiments, the translation layer may convert between optimized storagerepresentation and application representation using an algorithm orfunction based conversion without storing additional mappinginformation. For example, the translation layer may use a conversionalgorithm to recode values before storing the recode value innon-volatile storage.

In some embodiments, the recoding data contained in the memory of theapplication to an optimized storage representation may be extended to anarbitrarily large block size provided the range of possible values areobtainable in advance. For example, a counter value may be extended toan arbitrary block size in order to efficiently represent large countervalues. Data structures may also be recoded in an optimized storageformat by chaining multiple blocks or groups of optimized bits togetherusing an increment-and-carry method. For example, an 8-bit counter valuemay be recoded to an optimized storage format such that the total numberof values the 8 bit counter may represent is reduced to 200. Anincrement and carry method may be used to connect two or more 8 bitcounters recoded to the optimized storage format in order to obtainvalues above 200. Data in the optimized storage format may consumeand/or utilize fewer computing resources then data in the non-optimizedformat when interacted with by a computer system. Additionally,operations on data in the optimized storage format may have less latencythen operations on data not in the optimized format when performed bythe computer system. For example, operations on data stored in theoptimized format may have less latency then data stored in thenon-optimized format.

The translation layer may operate between the application and thenon-volatile storage of the computer system executing the application inorder to recode application data to the optimized storage format.Furthermore, a hypervisor or other administrative application maysupport the function of the translation layer. For example, thehypervisor may periodically sample application memory in order todetermine one or more data structures of the application that may berecoded to the optimized storage format. In some embodiments a storagedevice may further transform the value to perform error correction, suchas by implementing storage using Hamming codes. Recoding may integratewith error correction by changing the step size between the recodedvalues so as to maintain the Hamming distance requirements of the code.

To provide optimized data storage, the translation layer may firstdetermine based at least in part on a data schema associated with aparticular data field that the particular data field is capable ofoptimization, for example, a determination that the data field is to beupdated in an incremental manner. The determination may be using avariety of techniques, such as obtaining application memory as describedabove. The data schema may also be determined based at least in part oninformation associated with the application. For example, theapplication may have a database with an associated descriptionannotating a declaration for the data field. Additionally, theapplication may indicate a particular area of memory is capable ofoptimization. For example, the application may pass a flag to the reador write operations for the data field indicating that the data field isa counter. Alternatively, the determination may be inferred from anexisting data schema that identifies the data field as a sequencenumber, counter, or other data type that is commonly used in anincrementing fashion.

In some embodiments, the data field may be updated based at least inpart on one or more constraints to the data field. The one or moreconstraints may define limits to the values that may be used to updatethe data field. For example, the one or more constraints may cause thedata field to be updated in a particular identified sequence oraccording to a sequence that has one or more identified properties, suchas being an integer sequence that is monotonically increasing ordecreasing, possibly strictly monotonically increasing or decreasing.Similarly, the one or more constraints may cause the data field to bedecremented by a particular value when the data field in interactedwith. In some embodiments, the one or more constraints may cause thedata field to be correlated to a sequence such that the data field isupdated in accordance with the sequence, but not every value in thesequence is used. For instance, the one or more constraints may causeupdates to the data field to be correlated to the sequence of countingnumbers (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . ), such that updates may be members ofthe sequence but updates may skip some values in the sequence (e.g., 1,3, 5, 9 . . . ). Additionally, the one or more constraints may put alimit on the values that may be used to update the data field. Forexample, the one or more constraints may indicate that only wholenumbers may be used to update the data field. As described above, theone or more constraints may be determined based at least in part on thedata schema associated with the data field.

The translation layer may then, in response to receiving a new value forthe data field, convert the new data field value from an applicationmemory format to the optimized storage format. The conversion may beperformed, by the translation layer, as part of the write operation. Forexample, the translation layer may transform or otherwise recode the newvalue before the new value is sent to the storage device. In someembodiments, the conversion may incorporate a lookup table or otherconversion information to optimize recoding. For example, thetranslation layer may maintain a mapping of particular values to recodedvalues, such as 0111 to 0011 in the example above. The translation layermay then determine whether an old data field value is compatible withperforming an optimized write of the new data field value. Thedetermination may rely on retaining the old value in memory of thestorage device if operated on by a single write or may be performed byreading the old value prior to writing the new value.

The translation layer may also select a write method based at least inpart on the determination of whether the old data field value iscompatible with performing the write operation of the data field valuein the optimized storage format. A variety of different write methodsmay be used by the translation layer including a single non-clearupdate, multiple non-clear update, or to perform a clear update. Forexample, the translation layer may maintain a buffer as described aboveand wait until multiple updates require a clear operation beforeperforming the clear operation and updating the storage device. Thetranslation layer may then cause the new data field value to be writtento the non-volatile storage device using the selected write method. Thetranslation layer may also be responsible for retrieving data from thestorage device and converting the data back to a format that may be usedby the application. For example, in response to receiving a read requestfor the data field, the translation layer may retrieve the new datafield value from the storage device and convert the new data field valuefrom the optimized storage format to the application memory format.

In some embodiments, storage of application memory in the storage devicemay be modified such that application memory that is recoded in theoptimized data format is maintained in a separate area of memory in thestorage device than application memory that is not optimized. In thisway clear operations required for storage of the applicationnon-optimized memory may not cause a clear operation to be performed onapplication memory recoded in the optimized data format. For example,the translation layer may translate memory locations of optimized and/ornon-optimized data in order to maintain the data in two or more separatelocations. The translation layer may maintain a start location of theapplication's memory and an offset within the application's memoryindicating the area or areas of the application's memory to be recodedin the optimized data format. The translation layer may utilize analgorithm or map to convert an address of a data field from anapplication memory address to a physical address corresponding to thenon-volatile memory. Furthermore, a buffer of application memory recodedin the optimized data format may be maintained in order to reduce thenumber of cross-directional bit transition. For example, a buffer ofrecoded data may be maintained until a certain number of clearoperations associated with the recoded data in the buffer is reached, aclear operation may then be performed on the storage device and thebuffer may be written to the storage device. By maintaining at leastsome of the recoded data that requires a cross-directional bittransition in the buffer the number of cross-directional bit transitionsmay be reduced.

FIG. 1 is an illustrative environment 100 where one or more computersystems, as well as the associated code running thereon, may optimizedata for storage with one or more non-volatile storage devices. The oneor more computer systems may be a distributed computer system executingin a service provider environment. The one or more computer systems mayinclude physical memory 102. The physical memory 102 may include one ormore non-volatile storage devices, such as a solid-state drive, harddisk drive or optical drive. Furthermore, the physical memory 102 may beimplemented as a block-level storage device. The block-level storagedevice may enable the persistent storage of data used/generated by theone or more computer systems and/or an application 120 where the one ormore computer systems and/or the application 120 may only provideephemeral data storage. The application 120 may provide ephemeral datastorage in an application memory 122.

The physical memory 102 may include general storage 106 and optimizedstorage 104. The optimized storage 104 may be managed by a translationlayer 130 and configured such that the storage representation of datacontained in optimized storage 104 is configured to reduce the number ofcross-directional bit transition. The general data storage 106 may beconfigured such that the data stored in the general data storage 106 isnot configured to reduce the number of cross-directional bit transition.Furthermore, the general storage 106 and optimized storage 104 may bepositioned and maintained within the physical memory 102 such that theoptimized storage 104 and general storage 106 do not share bits in agroup of bits wired together as a clear block. The physical memory 102may be configured such that groups or blocks of bits are wired togethersuch that a clear operation on one bit of the block clears all the bitscontained in the block, described in greater detail below in connectionwith FIG. 2.

The application 120 may be used for various purposes, such as to operateas servers supporting a website, to operate business applications, or,generally, to serve as computing power for the customer. In otherexamples, the application 120 may be a database application, electroniccommerce application, business application, operating system applicationand/or other application. The application memory 122 may be a portion ofcomputer system memory used by the application 120 to store datagenerated by the application 120. The translation layer 130 may be acomponent of the computer system illustrated in FIG. 1. For example, thetranslation layer may be a device driver for the storage devicecontaining physical memory 102. In various embodiments, the translationlayer 130 is a component of an operating system executed by the computersystem. The translation layer 130 may be responsible for data conversion132 between the optimized storage 104 and the application memory 122.Data conversion 132 may include recoding at least a portion of theapplication memory 122 to an optimized storage format as describedabove. The optimized storage format may be configured such that datastored in physical memory 102 in the optimized storage format mayrequire fewer cross-directional bit transitions.

FIG. 2 illustrates a charge node 200 (also referred to as a MOSFET) of anon-volatile storage device in accordance with at least one embodiment.The non-volatile storage device may include a plurality of charge nodes200 and each charge node 200 may provide storage for one bit of data(e.g., 0 or 1). The charge node 200 may include a silicon substrate 202connected to a source 204 and a drain 206. The silicon substrate 202 maybe a thin slice of material, such as silicon, silicon dioxide, aluminumoxide, sapphire, germanium, gallium arsenide, an alloy of silicon andgermanium, or indium phosphide which may provide a foundation upon whichthe charge node 200 is deposited. The material deposited may include atunnel oxide layer 208, storage 210, gate oxide 212 and a control gate214.

The tunnel oxide layer 208 may be layer deposited onto the siliconsubstrate 202 that insulated the storage 210 from other regions of thenon-volatile storage device. The tunnel oxide layer 208 may comprise anoxide, such as silicon dioxide. The storage 210 may include a variety ofdifferent elements, such as a charge trap or floating gate. The storage210 may be any element capable of storing the modulation of chargeconcentration between a body electrode and the control gate 214 locatedabove the storage 210 and insulated from all other regions of thenon-volatile storage device by the gate oxide 212. If the storage 210 isnot charged (e.g., neutral), then a positive charge in the control gate214 creates a channel in the silicon substrate 202 that carries acurrent from source 204 to drain 206. If, however, the storage 210 isnegatively charged, then this charge may shield a channel region of thesilicon substrate from the control gate 214 and prevent the formation ofa channel between the source 204 and the drain 206.

The charge node 200 may include a word line and a bit line. The wordline may be used for addressing the particular bit corresponding to thecharge node 200. The bit line may be used for determining the valuestored in the storage 210 of the charge node 200. Multiple charge nodes200 may be arranged in the non-volatile storage device into blocks. Theclears may be done on complete blocks of charge nodes 200 of thenon-volatile storage device. For various non-volatile storage devices,write and clear operations may be slow operations and thereforeorganizing charge nodes 200 into blocks may increase performance of thestorage device. However, for certain data structure this type oforganization may require a large number of clear operations.

FIG. 3 is an illustrative environment 300 where one or more computersystems, as well as the associated code running thereon, may optimizedata for storage with one or more non-volatile storage devices, such asthe non-volatile storage devices described above in connection with FIG.2. As illustrated in FIG. 3, data contained in application memory 322may be translated and/or recoded for optimized storage 304. Both theapplication memory 322 and the optimized storage may contain anaddressable memory space. For example, an application may access aparticular data object stored in the optimized memory 304 based at leastin part on a memory address associated with the data object. Atranslation layer 330 may be responsible for recoding data stored inapplication memory 322 into an optimized storage format for storage inthe optimized storage 304. Furthermore, the translation layer 330 mayalso contain information suitable for locating data objects based atleast in part on a memory address associated with the data object.

The translation layer may also include a map of data values contained inmemory to corresponding data values in the optimized data storageformat. For any given update in the sequence data values in theoptimized storage format, the map may not provide an immediate reductionin the number of clears. In fact, for some set of updates, there may bean increase in the number of clear operations for that set of updates inthe optimized data storage format as opposed to the in-memory format forthe application. However, after a large number of updates in order ofthe sequence, there may be an overall net reduction of the number ofclear operations required to store the data values in optimized storageformat in the non-volatile storage. Furthermore the mapping may bereversible, such that a data value may be converted from optimizedstorage format to an in-memory format of the application based at leastin part on the map. As described herein a map may include a table, analgorithm, a set of operations, a deterministic function or othermechanism suitable receiving an input and determining a correspondingoutput.

The translation layer 330 may contain memory address information 334.The memory address information 334 may be configured to locate dataobjects stored in optimized storage 304. For example, the memory addressinformation 334 may include a page table or other lookup tableconfigured with one or more records indicating a particular optimizedstorage 304 address associated with application memory 322 address. Whenan application writes a new value to a data object managed by thetranslation layer 330, the translation layer 330 may recode the dataobject and determine, based at least in part on the memory addressinformation 334, a location in the optimized storage 304 to store therecoded data object. Similarly, if the application attempts to read adata object from the optimized storage 304, the translation layer 330may determine, based at least in part on an application memory addressassociated with the data object and the memory address information 334,the location of the data object in the optimized storage 304. Thetranslation layer 330 may then retrieve the data object from optimizedstorage 304 and recode the data object to a non-optimized data formatbefore providing the data object to the application.

Along with the memory address information 334 the translation layer 330may maintain translation information 332. The translation information332 may be usable by the translation layer 330 to recode data objectsfrom the non-optimized data format to the optimized data format as wellas from the optimized data format to the non-optimized data format. Asillustrated in FIG. 3, the translation information 332 may mapparticular values of data objects stored in application memory 322 tocorresponding representations of the particular values for storage inthe optimized storage 304. In various embodiments, the translationinformation 332 may be information corresponding to an algorithm or setof operations to be performed on the particular data values in order torecode that data object to the optimized storage format.

FIG. 4 illustrates various applications executing on computing resourcesoperated by a service provider 404 in accordance with at least oneembodiment. The application may be supported by system hardware 440. Thesystem hardware 440 may be used by a service provider 404 to providecomputing resources for customers. The service provider 404 may includewebsite operators, online retailers, social network providers, cableproviders, online game providers, or any entity capable of providingcomputing resources to customers. The system hardware 440 may includephysical hosts 442 also referred to as a host computer system. Thephysical hosts 442 may be any device or equipment configured to executeinstructions for performing data computation, manipulation or storagetasks, such as a computer or a server. A physical host 442 may beequipped with any needed processing capability, including one or moreprocessors, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a memory managementunit (MMU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) or a digital signalprocessor (DSP), memory, including static and dynamic memory, buses andinput and output ports that are compliant with any handshaking,communications or data transfer protocol. The system hardware 440 mayalso include storage devices, such as storage disks and tapes,networking equipment and the like. The storage devices may include atleast some non-volatile storage configured to provide storage for one ormore applications 420.

A virtualization layer executing on the physical host 442 enables thesystem hardware 440 to be used to provide computational resources uponwhich one or more virtual machines 420 may operate. For example, thevirtualization layer may enable the applications 420 to access systemhardware 440, such as the non-volatile storage device, on the physicalhost 442 through virtual device drivers on the virtual machine 420.Furthermore, physical host 442 may host multiple hypervisors of the sameor different types on the same system hardware 440. The hypervisor 444may be any device, software or firmware used for providing a virtualcomputing platform for the virtual machines 420. The virtual computingplatform may include various virtual computer components, such as one ormore virtual CPUs, virtual memory management units, virtual memory andthe like. As described above, the hypervisor 444 may periodically oraperiodically sample or otherwise collect information corresponding tothe applications' 420 memory. Furthermore, a translation layer 430 mayoptimize data for storage in the non-volatile storage of the physicalhost 442. The translation layer 430 may be any device, software orfirmware usable to optimize at least a portion of the physical hosts 442non-volatile storages. For example, the translation layer 430 may be avirtual device driver loaded into the hypervisor 444 or operating systemof the physical host 442.

As described above, the applications 420 may be used for variouspurposes, such as database applications, electronic commerceapplications, business applications, and/or other applications. Theapplication 420 may, during the course of operation, cause data to bewritten to non-volatile storage of the physical host 442. The hypervisor444 may enable the application to access the non-volatile storage of thephysical host 442. Furthermore, the hypervisor 444 may be configuredsuch that the hypervisor 444 may access the memory and/or other portionsof the application 420. For example, the hypervisor 444 may operate atan administrator level of the physical host 442 thereby allowing thehypervisor 444 to access one or more restricted computing resources ofthe physical host 442. The hypervisor 444 may then gather activity,operational information or statistics corresponding to the application420. The information may be gathered or compiled over an interval oftime or taken at one or more snapshots in time.

The hypervisor 444 or other component, such as the translation layer430, may then determine one or more areas of memory of the application420 that may be optimized based at least in part on the informationcollected by the hypervisor 444. For example, compression operations maybe performed on a copy of the applications' 420 memory and an entropyvalue for the memory may be calculated. One or more patterns may then bediscovered in the applications' 420 memory based at least in part on theentropy. Patterns in values stored in applications' 420 memory may thenbe detected over a period of time. If the values are part of an ordersequence the translation layer 430 may then determine a recoding formatsuch that the data values are optimized for storage in non-volatilememory of the physical host 442 by at least requiring fewercross-directional bit translations.

FIG. 5 is an illustrative environment 500 where one or more computersystems, as well as the associated code running thereon, may optimizedata for storage in memory of one or more non-volatile storage devices.A translation layer 530 may operate as an intermediary between anapplication and physical memory 502. The translation layer 530,application and the physical memory 502 may all be executing on the sameor different host computer systems, such as the physical host describedabove. For example, the application and translation layer 530 may beexecuting on a first host computer system and the physical memory 502may be a network storage device connected to the application over anetwork. The physical memory 502 may contain one or more optimizedstorage 504. The optimized storage 504 may correspond to memorylocations of the physical memory 502 that have been recoded in anoptimized data format by the translation layer 530.

The translation layer may recode one or more optimized data structures524 contained in application memory 522. The optimized data structures524 may include any data structure that contains successive values of anorder sequence which may be identifiable as such. For example, theoptimized data structures 524 may be the sequence of prime numbersstarting with 1. The optimized data structure 524 may be identified by auser, the application or some other application, such as the hypervisordescribed above in connection with FIG. 5. Furthermore, the translationlayer may be responsible for writing optimized data and non-optimizeddata of the application memory 522 to the physical memory 502. Forexample, the translation layer 530 may be exposed to the application asa device driver or other interface configured to enable the applicationto persist data to physical memory 502.

The translation layer 530 may perform optimized data conversion 532 andnon-optimized data conversion 534. The non-optimized data conversion 534may apply the identity transformation to the data being written tomemory. In various embodiments, the identity transformation whenperformed on data by the translation layer 530 does not alter or modifythe bits of data. The translation layer 530 may also write the datacontained in application memory directly to memory without performingconversion of the data. The translation layer 530 may store or otherwisehave available information corresponding to the application memory 522,such as a start location and one or more offsets. The one or moreoffsets may indicate within the application memory 522 the location ofcorresponding optimized data structures. When the translation layerreceives a request to interact with application memory 522 and/oroptimized storage 504 the translation layer 530 may determine, based atleast in part on the one or more offsets, if the request includes arequest to interact with data in the optimized storage format. Forexample, if a particular offset maintained by the translation layer 530indicates that the requested data corresponds to the optimized datastructure 524, the translation layer 530 may then perform theappropriate data conversion operation, such as converting the data tothe optimized storage representation as described above.

FIG. 6 shows an illustrative example of a process 600 which may be usedto recode data values to an optimized storage format for storage innon-volatile storage devices. The process 600 may be performed by anysuitable system, such as by translation layer 530 as described inconnection with FIG. 5. Returning to FIG. 6, in an embodiment, theprocess 600 includes determining one or more data fields with dataschema suitable for optimization 602. For example, a user of anapplication may indicate that the application utilizes a particular datafield as a counter during operation. In another example, the applicationmay be a database with a published data schema indicating that aparticular data field is a counter associated with a particular row. Ahypervisor or other administrative application may also determine theone or more data fields based at least in part on information obtainedfrom the application or memory of the application. The data schema maybe any schema indicating that the data field contains sequential valueswhich are ordered and progress in a predictable pattern, such as acounter or twenty-four hour clock.

The translation layer may then convert the one or more data fields to anoptimized data format 604. For example, the data fields may be stored inthe application memory in a two's complement memory format, Thetranslation layer may convert two's complement memory format to asliding optimized data format as described above such that the slidingoptimized data format reduces the number of cross-directional bittransitions. Furthermore, the translation layer may generate a lookuptable or other information suitable for converting data value betweenformats. The translation layer may then determine a previous data fieldvalue corresponding to the one or more data fields is compatible with anoptimize write operation 606. For example, if a value of the data fieldstored in non-volatile memory is null or empty the translation layer maywrite the data in optimized data format to non-volatile memory withoutrequiring a cross-directional bit transition. However, if writing theoptimized data to non-volatile memory would require a cross-directionalbit transition the translation layer may buffer the data, select a newlocation to store the data or other operation that may not require across-directional bit transition.

The translation layer may also select a write method for writing theoptimized data to non-volatile memory based at least in part on thevalue contained in the previous data field 608. For example, thetranslation layer may select a single non-erasure update, multiplenon-erasure updates or an erasure update. The translation layer may thendetermine a location in non-volatile memory for performing the selectedwrite operation 610. For example, the translation layer may determine anarea of non-volatile memory such that the data field is contained in ablock of non-volatile memory that does not contain data in anon-optimized format. This may reduce the number of clear operationperformed on the optimized data as a result of a clear operation beingperformed on non-optimized data. The translation layer may maintain arecord of the determined location in order to enable retrieval of thedata field at some point in time after the data is written to thedetermined memory location. The translation layer may then write thevalue contained in the data field in the optimized storage format tonon-volatile memory at the determined location using the selected method612.

FIG. 7 shows an illustrative example of a process 700 which may be usedto retrieve data stored in an optimized data format from non-volatilememory. The process 700 may be performed by any suitable system, such asby translation layer 430 as described in connection with FIG. 4.Returning to FIG. 7, in an embodiment, the process 700 includesreceiving a request for a data field stored in the optimized storageformat in non-volatile memory 702. The request may be received at atranslation layer and may have been generated at least in part by anapplication attempting to interact with application data persisted innon-volatile storage. The translation layer may determine a location innon-volatile memory for performing the read operation 704 based at leastin part on the received request. For example, the request may include amemory address associated with the data field, the memory address maycorrespond to an application memory address contained in memoryallocated to the application. The translation layer may determine thelocation in non-volatile memory for performing the read operation basedat least in part on the memory address included in the request. Forexample, the translation layer may obtain a record from a page table orother memory address table indicating a physical memory address for thedata field corresponding to the address included in the request. Invarious embodiments, the address included in the request corresponds tothe physical memory address of the data field. The translation layer maythen retrieve the data value corresponding to the data field fromnon-volatile storage 706. The translation layer may retrieve the datavalue based at least in part on a record of an address associated withthe data field stored in a memory table maintained by the translationlayer.

The translation layer may then convert the data value obtained from thenon-volatile memory from an optimized storage format to an in-memoryformat 708 The translation layer may maintain a lookup table containingconversion information suitable for converting data to and from theoptimized storage format. The in-memory format may be any format used bythe application to represent data values in application memory, such astwo's complement format. The translation layer may then provide theconverted data value in response to the request 710. For example, thetranslation layer or other application, such as a hypervisor, may writethe converted data value into application memory.

FIG. 8 illustrates aspects of an example environment 800 forimplementing aspects in accordance with various embodiments. As will beappreciated, although a web-based environment is used for purposes ofexplanation, different environments may be used, as appropriate, toimplement various embodiments. The environment includes an electronicclient device 802, which can include any appropriate device operable tosend and/or receive requests, messages or information over anappropriate network 804 and, in some embodiments, convey informationback to a user of the device. Examples of such client devices includepersonal computers, cell phones, handheld messaging devices, laptopcomputers, tablet computers, set-top boxes, personal data assistants,embedded computer systems, electronic book readers and the like. Thenetwork can include any appropriate network, including an intranet, theInternet, a cellular network, a local area network, a satellite networkor any other such network and/or combination thereof. Components usedfor such a system can depend at least in part upon the type of networkand/or environment selected. Protocols and components for communicatingvia such a network are well known and will not be discussed herein indetail. Communication over the network can be enabled by wired orwireless connections and combinations thereof. In this example, thenetwork includes the Internet, as the environment includes a web server806 for receiving requests and serving content in response thereto,although for other networks an alternative device serving a similarpurpose could be used as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill inthe art.

The illustrative environment includes at least one application server808 and a data store 810. It should be understood that there can beseveral application servers, layers or other elements, processes orcomponents, which may be chained or otherwise configured, which caninteract to perform tasks such as obtaining data from an appropriatedata store. Servers, as used herein, may be implemented in various ways,such as hardware devices or virtual computer systems. In some contexts,servers may refer to a programming module being executed on a computersystem. As used herein, unless otherwise stated or clear from context,the term “data store” refers to any device or combination of devicescapable of storing, accessing and retrieving data, which may include anycombination and number of data servers, databases, data storage devicesand data storage media, in any standard, distributed, virtual orclustered environment. The application server can include anyappropriate hardware, software and firmware for integrating with thedata store as needed to execute aspects of one or more applications forthe client device, handling some or all of the data access and businesslogic for an application. The application server may provide accesscontrol services in cooperation with the data store and is able togenerate content including, but not limited to, text, graphics, audio,video and/or other content usable to be provided to the user, which maybe served to the user by the web server in the form of HyperText MarkupLanguage (“HTML”), Extensible Markup Language (“XML”), JavaScript,Cascading Style Sheets (“CSS”) or another appropriate client-sidestructured language. Content transferred to a client device may beprocessed by the client device to provide the content in one or moreforms including, but not limited to, forms that are perceptible to theuser audibly, visually and/or through other senses including touch,taste, and/or smell. The handling of all requests and responses, as wellas the delivery of content between the client device 802 and theapplication server 808, can be handled by the web server using PHP:Hypertext Preprocessor (“PHP”), Python, Ruby, Perl, Java, HTML, XML oranother appropriate server-side structured language in this example. Itshould be understood that the web and application servers are notrequired and are merely example components, as structured code discussedherein can be executed on any appropriate device or host machine asdiscussed elsewhere herein. Further, operations described herein asbeing performed by a single device may, unless otherwise clear fromcontext, be performed collectively by multiple devices, which may form adistributed and/or virtual system.

The data store 810 can include several separate data tables, databases,data documents, dynamic data storage schemes and/or other data storagemechanisms and media for storing data relating to a particular aspect ofthe present disclosure. For example, the data store illustrated mayinclude mechanisms for storing production data 812 and user information816, which can be used to serve content for the production side. Thedata store also is shown to include a mechanism for storing log data814, which can be used for reporting, analysis or other such purposes.It should be understood that there can be many other aspects that mayneed to be stored in the data store, such as page image information andaccess rights information, which can be stored in any of the abovelisted mechanisms as appropriate or in additional mechanisms in the datastore 810. The data store 810 is operable, through logic associatedtherewith, to receive instructions from the application server 808 andobtain, update or otherwise process data in response thereto. Theapplication server 808 may provide static, dynamic or a combination ofstatic and dynamic data in response to the received instructions.Dynamic data, such as data used in web logs (blogs), shoppingapplications, news services and other such applications may be generatedby server-side structured languages as described herein or may beprovided by a content management system (“CMS”) operating on, or underthe control of, the application server. In one example, a user, througha device operated by the user, might submit a search request for acertain type of item. In this case, the data store might access the userinformation to verify the identity of the user and can access thecatalog detail information to obtain information about items of thattype. The information then can be returned to the user, such as in aresults listing on a web page that the user is able to view via abrowser on the user device 802. Information for a particular item ofinterest can be viewed in a dedicated page or window of the browser. Itshould be noted, however, that embodiments of the present disclosure arenot necessarily limited to the context of web pages, but may be moregenerally applicable to processing requests in general, where therequests are not necessarily requests for content.

Each server typically will include an operating system that providesexecutable program instructions for the general administration andoperation of that server and typically will include a computer-readablestorage medium (e.g., a hard disk, random access memory, read onlymemory, etc.) storing instructions that, when executed by a processor ofthe server, allow the server to perform its intended functions. Suitableimplementations for the operating system and general functionality ofthe servers are known or commercially available and are readilyimplemented by persons having ordinary skill in the art, particularly inlight of the disclosure herein.

The environment, in one embodiment, is a distributed and/or virtualcomputing environment utilizing several computer systems and componentsthat are interconnected via communication links, using one or morecomputer networks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciatedby those of ordinary skill in the art that such a system could operateequally well in a system having fewer or a greater number of componentsthan are illustrated in FIG. 8. Thus, the depiction of the system 800 inFIG. 8 should be taken as being illustrative in nature and not limitingto the scope of the disclosure.

The various embodiments further can be implemented in a wide variety ofoperating environments, which in some cases can include one or more usercomputers, computing devices or processing devices which can be used tooperate any of a number of applications. User or client devices caninclude any of a number of general purpose personal computers, such asdesktop, laptop or tablet computers running a standard operating system,as well as cellular, wireless and handheld devices running mobilesoftware and capable of supporting a number of networking and messagingprotocols. Such a system also can include a number of workstationsrunning any of a variety of commercially-available operating systems andother known applications for purposes such as development and databasemanagement. These devices also can include other electronic devices,such as dummy terminals, thin-clients, gaming systems and other devicescapable of communicating via a network. These devices also can includevirtual devices such as virtual machines, hypervisors and other virtualdevices capable of communicating via a network.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure utilize at least onenetwork that would be familiar to those skilled in the art forsupporting communications using any of a variety ofcommercially-available protocols, such as Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (“TCP/IP”), User Datagram Protocol (“UDP”),protocols operating in various layers of the Open System Interconnection(“OSI”) model, File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”), Universal Plug and Play(“UpnP”), Network File System (“NFS”), Common Internet File System(“CIFS”) and AppleTalk. The network can be, for example, a local areanetwork, a wide-area network, a virtual private network, the Internet,an intranet, an extranet, a public switched telephone network, aninfrared network, a wireless network, a satellite network and anycombination thereof.

In embodiments utilizing a web server, the web server can run any of avariety of server or mid-tier applications, including Hypertext TransferProtocol (“HTTP”) servers, FTP servers, Common Gateway Interface (“CGP”)servers, data servers, Java servers, Apache servers and businessapplication servers. The server(s) also may be capable of executingprograms or scripts in response to requests from user devices, such asby executing one or more web applications that may be implemented as oneor more scripts or programs written in any programming language, such asJava®, C, C # or C++, or any scripting language, such as Ruby, PHP,Perl, Python or TCL, as well as combinations thereof. The server(s) mayalso include database servers, including without limitation thosecommercially available from Oracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase® and IBM® aswell as open-source servers such as MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, MongoDB,and any other server capable of storing, retrieving and accessingstructured or unstructured data. Database servers may includetable-based servers, document-based servers, unstructured servers,relational servers, non-relational servers or combinations of theseand/or other database servers.

The environment can include a variety of data stores and other memoryand storage media as discussed above. These can reside in a variety oflocations, such as on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) oneor more of the computers or remote from any or all of the computersacross the network. In a particular set of embodiments, the informationmay reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar to those skilledin the art. Similarly, any necessary files for performing the functionsattributed to the computers, servers or other network devices may bestored locally and/or remotely, as appropriate. Where a system includescomputerized devices, each such device can include hardware elementsthat may be electrically coupled via a bus, the elements including, forexample, at least one central processing unit (“CPU” or “processor”), atleast one input device (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, controller, touchscreen or keypad) and at least one output device (e.g., a displaydevice, printer or speaker). Such a system may also include one or morestorage devices, such as disk drives, optical storage devices andsolid-state storage devices such as random access memory (“RAM”) orread-only memory (“ROM”), as well as removable media devices, memorycards, flash cards, etc.

Such devices also can include a computer-readable storage media reader,a communications device (e.g., a modem, a network card (wireless orwired), an infrared communication device, etc.) and working memory asdescribed above. The computer-readable storage media reader can beconnected with, or configured to receive, a computer-readable storagemedium, representing remote, local, fixed and/or removable storagedevices as well as storage media for temporarily and/or more permanentlycontaining, storing, transmitting and retrieving computer-readableinformation. The system and various devices also typically will includea number of software applications, modules, services or other elementslocated within at least one working memory device, including anoperating system and application programs, such as a client applicationor web browser. It should be appreciated that alternate embodiments mayhave numerous variations from that described above. For example,customized hardware might also be used and/or particular elements mightbe implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, suchas applets) or both. Further, connection to other computing devices suchas network input/output devices may be employed.

Storage media and computer readable media for containing code, orportions of code, can include any appropriate media known or used in theart, including storage media and communication media, such as, but notlimited to, volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable mediaimplemented in any method or technology for storage and/or transmissionof information such as computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data, including RAM, ROM, Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (“EEPROM”), flash memory or other memorytechnology, Compact Disc Read-Only Memory (“CD-ROM”), digital versatiledisk (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or any othermedium which can be used to store the desired information and which canbe accessed by the system device. Based on the disclosure and teachingsprovided herein, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciateother ways and/or methods to implement the various embodiments.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that various modifications and changes may be made thereuntowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the claims.

Other variations are within the spirit of the present disclosure. Thus,while the disclosed techniques are susceptible to various modificationsand alternative constructions, certain illustrated embodiments thereofare shown in the drawings and have been described above in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that there is no intention to limit theinvention to the specific form or forms disclosed, but on the contrary,the intention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructionsand equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention, asdefined in the appended claims.

The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in thecontext of describing the disclosed embodiments (especially in thecontext of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both thesingular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearlycontradicted by context. The terms “comprising,” “having,” “including”and “containing” are to be construed as open-ended terms (i.e., meaning“including, but not limited to,”) unless otherwise noted. The term“connected,” when unmodified and referring to physical connections, isto be construed as partly or wholly contained within, attached to orjoined together, even if there is something intervening. Recitation ofranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthandmethod of referring individually to each separate value falling withinthe range, unless otherwise indicated herein and each separate value isincorporated into the specification as if it were individually recitedherein. The use of the term “set” (e.g., “a set of items”) or “subset”unless otherwise noted or contradicted by context, is to be construed asa nonempty collection comprising one or more members. Further, unlessotherwise noted or contradicted by context, the term “subset” of acorresponding set does not necessarily denote a proper subset of thecorresponding set, but the subset and the corresponding set may beequal.

Conjunctive language, such as phrases of the form “at least one of A, B,and C,” or “at least one of A, B and C,” unless specifically statedotherwise or otherwise clearly contradicted by context, is otherwiseunderstood with the context as used in general to present that an item,term, etc., may be either A or B or C, or any nonempty subset of the setof A and B and C. For instance, in the illustrative example of a sethaving three members, the conjunctive phrases “at least one of A, B, andC” and “at least one of A, B and C” refer to any of the following sets:{A}, {B}, {C}, {A, B}, {A, C}, {B, C}, {A, B, C}. Thus, such conjunctivelanguage is not generally intended to imply that certain embodimentsrequire at least one of A, at least one of B and at least one of C eachto be present.

Operations of processes described herein can be performed in anysuitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearlycontradicted by context. Processes described herein (or variationsand/or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of oneor more computer systems configured with executable instructions and maybe implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or morecomputer programs or one or more applications) executing collectively onone or more processors, by hardware or combinations thereof. The codemay be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in theform of a computer program comprising a plurality of instructionsexecutable by one or more processors. The computer-readable storagemedium may be non-transitory.

The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”)provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate embodiments ofthe invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of theinvention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specificationshould be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essentialto the practice of the invention.

Embodiments of this disclosure are described herein, including the bestmode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention. Variationsof those embodiments may become apparent to those of ordinary skill inthe art upon reading the foregoing description. The inventors expectskilled artisans to employ such variations as appropriate and theinventors intend for embodiments of the present disclosure to bepracticed otherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly,the scope of the present disclosure includes all modifications andequivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended heretoas permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of theabove-described elements in all possible variations thereof isencompassed by the scope of the present disclosure unless otherwiseindicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

All references, including publications, patent applications and patents,cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent asif each reference were individually and specifically indicated to beincorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving an update to adata field where application of the update modifies the data field inaccordance with a constraint; recoding the update from a first format toa second format different than the first format to produce a recodedupdate, the recoded update including at least a same number of data bitsas the update, the recoding causing a latency associated with storingthe recoded update to be less than a latency associated with storing theupdate in the first format; and storing the recoded update to the datafield.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein: the data field holds acounter; and the counter is updated in accordance with a monotonicallychanging sequence of natural numbers.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein:recoding the update includes utilizing a table of values to convertedvalues; and the table is configured such that for a set of updates, anumber of clear operations is lower for recoded values than for originalvalues.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising recovering theupdate from the data field by at least: obtaining a location of the datafield based at least in part on a record contained in a lookup table;retrieving a value from the location; and converting the value from thesecond format to the first format.
 5. A system, comprising: one or moreprocessors; and memory with executable instructions, that if executed bythe one or more processors, cause the system to: receive an update to adata field where application of the update modifies the data field inaccordance with a constraint; recode the update from a first format to asecond format different than the first format to produce a recodedupdate, the recoded update including at least a matching number of databits as the update, the recoding causing a latency associated withstoring the recoded update to be less than a latency associated withstoring the update in the first format; and store the recoded update tothe data field.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the memory furtherincludes instructions, that if executed by the one or more processors,cause the system to determine the second format based at least in parton a table that holds a representation of the update in the secondformat.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein the memory further includesinstructions, that if executed by the one or more processors, cause thesystem to execute an application that allocates a storage space for thedata field in an application data memory.
 8. The system of claim 7,wherein the memory further includes instructions, that if executed bythe one or more processors, cause the system to: sample the applicationdata memory associated with the application over a period of time;detect the constraint on updating the data field based at least in parton a result of sampling the application data memory, wherein one or moreupdates to a sequence of values are stored in the data field; anddetermine the data field for optimization based at least in part on theconstraint.
 9. The system of claim 5, wherein: the instructions thatcause the system to store the recoded update further includeinstructions that cause the system to determine a location separate froma memory location used to store a non-optimized value; and the recodedupdate is stored in the location.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein thememory further includes instructions, that if executed by the one ormore processors, cause the system to determine the location based atleast in part on a table containing one or more records indicating anaddress of one or more optimized data values.
 11. The system of claim 5;wherein the memory further includes instructions, that if executed bythe one or more processors, cause the system to: determine that theupdate causes the data field to experience at least onecross-directional bit transition; and as a result of determining thatthe update causes the data field to experience at least onecross-directional bit transition, buffer the recoded update.
 12. Thesystem of claim 5; wherein the memory further includes instructions,that if executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:retrieve the recoded update from the memory in response to a request forthe update; convert the recoded update to the first format; and providethe recoded update in the first format.
 13. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions that,if executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause thecomputer system to at least: receive an update to a data field whereapplication of the update modifies the data field in accordance with aconstraint; recode the update from a first format to a second formatdifferent than the first format to produce a recoded update, the recodedupdate being at least the same size as the update, the recoding causinga latency associated with storing the recoded update to be less than alatency associated with storing the update in the first format; andstore the recoded update to the data field.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructionsthat cause the computer system to receive the update to the data fieldfurther include instructions that cause the computer system to receive aflag associated with the update to the data field indicating that thedata field is to be optimized for storage with a memory associated withthe data field.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumof claim 13, wherein the instructions further comprise instructionsthat, if executed by the one or more processors, cause the computersystem to provide, in response to a request, a value of the data fieldin the first format.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 13, wherein the instructions further compriseinstructions that, if executed by the one or more processors, cause thecomputer system to: store the update in a buffer memory; modify contentsof the buffer memory to produce the recoded update; and transfer therecoded update from the buffer memory into the data field.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein theinstructions further comprise instructions that, if executed by the oneor more processors, cause the computer system to execute an applicationwherein the data field is allocated in memory allocated to theapplication.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 17, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions that,if executed by the one or more processors; cause the computer system todetect the data field based at least in part on one or more previousvalues recorded to the data field.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructionsfurther comprise instructions that, if executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the computer system to determine that the data fieldis a counter utilized by the application.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the instructionsthat cause the computer system to recode the update further includeinstructions that, if executed, cause the computer system to recode theupdate based at least in part on a table storing translation values.